Can you imagine Ed Balls as Chancellor? He certainly can and if the papers are to be believed it is he who Darling reckons is briefing against him. Ed is possibly the only minister who the public, if they know him, detest even more than the Gordon Brown.

He is universally disliked by MPs, journalists, party activists and civil servants alike. Arrogant, rude and just plain unpleasant to deal with, he manages to come over as such even when he is on television. With him as Chancellor the Labour Party has the chance of becoming the third party behind the LibDems. Go for it…